My TV Rankings, 20/2013

My rankings for the thirteen new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, May 12th to Saturday, May 18th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Scandal “White Hat’s Back On” A

Very well done, Scandal, very well done. Other shows would have run out of steam after a few episodes of what this show attempted to do over the last season, but Scandal just kept getting more and more awesome, going from guilty pleasure to flat-out pleasure, and this finale was the perfect way to close things off. The way the Cytron card was tracked down to Billy and how it was revealed that Rosen, the one character largely unblemished by evil (or whatever you want to call it) was just using the Card as leverage to get his job back, that was all perfect, especially once we saw Quinn sadistically drilling into Billy’s thigh, which was strangely awesome. The stuff with Cyrus attempting to maneuver Fitz and Olivia away from each other without hurting either of them was also fantastic, and Jeff Perry had both more epic rants to make and a heart attack (which we all knew was coming) to deal with, both of which he mastered perfectly. I thought the episode was done when Olivia dumped Fitz after finding out about Verna, but the final reveal, that ‘Olitz’ was now out in public and B613’s shadowy head was actually Olivia’s dad was masterfully done, eclipsing everything else in this sublime episode.

2. New Girl “Elaine’s Big Day” A/A-

I’ve really enjoyed watching New Girl elevate itself into the top tier of current sitcoms this season and this finale wrapped things up very nicely. Jess and Nick driving into the night is exactly the right way for the season to end, and although this episode didn’t examine the relationship in particularly great detail, the last few weeks set this up very well. Comedy-wise, we learned the obvious here: Winston + badger + air ducts = funny. I know some people don’t like Winston’s love of violent pranks and I sometimes have misgivings too, but here it was just hilarious and the inclusion of the badger in the prank (“You guys, I don’t think the badger was actually rabid, he was just kind of a dick”) made everything that much better. Lamorne Morris deserves more material, but he really knocks everything he gets out of the park and this was no exception. Also, the Schmidt/CeCe/Elizabeth triangle was another plot which worked well in this episode, with Max Greenfield, Hannah Simone and Merritt Wever doing great work. The way it ended, with Schmidt running away, was pretty much perfect and this was one more thing the show did exceptionally well in this great (bar the unnecessary Taylor Swift cameo, which wasn’t *too* bad I guess) finale.

3. Rectify “Drip, Drip” A-

After initially showing signs of promise, Daniel Holden’s adjustment back into society arguably descended into total failure here, and Rectify’s examination of this descent was as incredible as expected. The first part of the episode, where Daniel rides along with the ‘goat man’ was so effectively surreal that I thought it was actually some sort of dream sequence. Very few shows would attempt to do what Rectify did in this part of the episode alone, and its a reflection on the quality of the show that it, and the rest of the episode, worked so well. Daniel having a talk with his stepfather, telling Amantha and his mother to stop living his life for him, getting baptized but disturbing Tawny in the process and then his showdown with Teddy – it was all done in such a moving and effective manner. Although I think Teddy’s one of the more loathsome TV characters of 2013, his lashing out at Daniel was very well set-up, both in previous episodes and in this hour – his rejection of Tawny’s view of where Daniel fits into their lives, his frustration at him taking his lucky mechanic, his drunk observance of what a waste his day of flyer-distribution was, it all worked to make the final scene all the more effective. This is great TV here and I’m so glad its been renewed for another season.

Read below for my take on Mad Men, Awkward and more:

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My TV Rankings, 19/2013

My rankings for the thirteen new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, May 5th to Saturday, May 11th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Scandal “Any Questions?” A-

At one point in this episode, I just wanted to get up and applaud Jeff Perry’s performance. Seeing him scream, shout, belittle, confide and converse was like watching a masterclass in acting and the scene where he tears down James was simply sublime. When you take away Cyrus, the episode would definitely be quite a bit weaker, but it would still be highly enjoyable. I may have gotten spoiled on who was helping the mole (damn Twitter) and I knew who the actual mole was as soon as Matt Letscher’s name appeared in the guest star credits, but still, the reveal here and the Huck/Charlie scenes were so f**king good. Finding out that Fitz had actually been unsure about running for a second term for a while made the events of last week’s episode work even better, resulting in that great final scene where he rises to the occasion and runs for another term. Everything that Joe Morton’s shadowy intelligence guy did here was also great, with Morton working well with both Scott Foley and Jeff Perry. The only thing which didn’t work about the episode was the Mellie/John Barrowman stuff, but overall I’m still very happy with what I watched here.

2. Rectify “Plato’s Cave” A-

Rectify following Daniel’s day in town was one of those beautiful things which has to be seen to be believed. Pretty much everything here was perfect: starting off in the Wal-Mart with his mom. You could just see little snippets of the dynamic they had before Daniel was carted off to Death Row, and its just great, as is how they drove off the news crew by doing nothing. Then we see him go to the church to visit his Tawny and the episode reaches its peak – the simple, beautiful performance of Adelaide Clemens matches that of Aden Young perfectly as the two connect and converse over God in a manner which is both compelling and exquisite to watch. The moment the two hug, you know something’s going to go wrong, but I was pretty pleased that what happened was pretty minor and that we get to keep exploring their relationship in future. The elements of this episode which didn’t really work for me were the ones with Jon exploring the case and the final bit where Daniel sleeps with the hairdresser, which felt kinda corny to me, although it didn’t change the fact that this was a great episode.

3. The Big Bang Theory “The Love Spell Potential”A-

It hasn’t got everything right this season, but The Big Bang Theory has pretty much done perfectly when it comes to big emotional scenes, and in this episode it had two of those which it executed perfectly. Other shows (most famously Community) have done great Dungeons&Dragons-centric episodes, so I was curious whether TBBT would do a good job with this. I was initially worried about there being too much nerd-mocking (something the show does too often), and there was a little of that, but once Simon Helberg did his Nicolas Cage impression (he is so good at impersonations – watch him whenever he goes on a late-night show) it was all great and there was plenty of fun and awesome moments to be had, with the group dynamic working perfectly as always. Although the final scene could have been mishandled, I thought it was really well done and provided the second of the two great emotional scenes in this episode. The first arose between Raj and Lucy. Kate Micucci was a little shaky initially, but she was really hitting her punchlines in this episode and the final scene between them outside the restaurant was brilliantly written, acted and directed.

For my take on Mad Men, Inside Amy Schumer and more, read below:

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2013-14 TV Preview, NBC

After multiple days of slow reveals, NBC appears to be pretty much done* with what it’ll order to series for next season, so now is the time for some analysis of where the network is at the moment, a brief (and highly speculative) guide to the new shows, and my predicted schedule:

(*There are still a couple of pilots whose fates are unresolved and which I won’t talk about here: (Assistance, Untitled Craig Robinson, I Am Victor and Brenda Forever)

Oh, NBC. Only you could go from 4th to 1st in one half of the season and then fall right back down again in the next half. The Voice is a juggernaut, but its always going to be difficult to build a schedule around one show, especially if that show then happens to be gone for three months, leaving the stuff around it to wither and die. In the case of Go On, NBC’s humiliation is particularly strong – it got a massive premiere number and settled in very well while it was initially behind The Voice. Then it had to survive off Betty White’s Off Their Rockers and could barely scrape a 1.0 rating. The only thing which could have prevented its cancellation was the shame it would cause for network execs who’d really thought the show was the next big thing. Other than Goon, the only other huge disappointment for NBC will be Smash, but most people thought would be have a tough second season anyway. Slightly less disappointing for the network, but just as humiliating was the insane mess that was Up All Night’s attempts at rebooting – it should have really just aired its thirteen episodes and gone away quietly, but NBC and Lorne Michaels insisted on resurrecting it and they paid the price in the contempt they got for even considering its survival.

The rest of the schedule is tinged with a lighter shade of disappointment – Do No Harm and Deception were never going to be hits, but there was hope that the latter would get to a second season, while comedies 1600 Penn and Guys with Kids were similar misses, with NBC’s Thursday doing generally very poorly, although Parks and Rec is still quite solid and Community got another season, because although its ratings were appalling by network TV standards, it was still enough for NBC (and Sony really fought tooth-and-nail for renewal). The failures of New Normal and Whitney aren’t going to be too heavily mourned either – the former was always going to have a tough time finding a broad audience and the latter did solidly, but was never going to be the hit NBC thought it would be.

But luckily, even when you take out The Voice, NBC has some bright spots – Revolution did very well for much of the year (although given its recent ratings, it’ll have trouble in season two), Parenthood did very impressively and Wednesday’s were surprisingly solid – I think everyone at NBC will be very happy that Chicago Fire has already spawned a spin-off after one season – procedurals are the backbone of broadcast TV, and the Wednesday line-up was one of the few bright spots this season. Also, Grimm – that’s doing what it does very well, despite NBC’s insane scheduling.

So, let’s talk about the new shows:

About A Boy

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What is it: Have you watched the Hugh Grant movie About a Boy? Good, then this is a TV series version of that (in the US, not the UK), with David Walton replacing Grant. If you haven’t watched the movie, the premise is basically that Walton’s character is a listless sleazebag who starts becoming a better person when a kid and his less-than-stable mother (played here by Minnie Driver) move in next door.

Will it be good: I have reasonably high hopes for this: Walton was fantastic in last year’s short-lived Bent and I think he’s pretty much perfect for the role Grant played in the movie. Also, the people behind the camera are also quite impressive – Jason Katims has gained a great reputation for quality (and tear-inducing) TV over the last few years and with Jon Favreau directing the pilot, I’m very intrigued about the tone.

Will it be successful: I think this’ll be a show that *could* attract an audience, but a lot will depend on whether NBC puts it in the right timeslot, and by the right timeslot, I mean Tuesdays at 9:30pm, just before Parenthood and with a compatible show beforehand to keep the Voice lead-in strong. That’s not to say About a Boy doesn’t have several advantages (its a recognizable brand, people will be interested in watching a TV version of the movie they enjoyed etc.), but with NBC in the state its in, it still needs all the help it can get.

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2013-14 TV Season Preview, Fox

Yesterday evening, Fox announced the new shows its picked up for the 2013-14 season. So now is the time for some analysis of where the network is at the moment, a brief (and highly speculative) guide to the new shows, and my predicted schedule:

The general consensus on Fox is that it had a pretty shitty season. Sure, The Following has done reasonably well, Bones is still surprisingly solid and the animated stuff on Sunday’s didn’t do terrible numbers. But everything else? The two big, culturally relevant (in theory) tentpole shows – Idol and X-Factor have both been disappointing this season, with the former being in obvious decline and the latter being both unnecessary and a poor performer.

New Girl has survived the ‘sitcom smackdown’ that caused Tuesday’s at 9 to be a disaster zone for everyone except CBS, but its never going to be more than a decent-sized hit at best. The four-comedy Tuesday has, with the exception of Raising Hope (which ended up losing steam towards the end of the year), done fairly poorly, with Ben and Kate being a lovely show which was pretty much DOA ratings-wise and The Mindy Project ending up far from the smash Fox execs seemed to think it would be. Let’s not even talk about the complete absence of The Goodwin Games. There’s really not much to say about the other shows either, The Mob Doctor was a failure from the moment it aired, Gordon Ramsay’s shows aren’t as strong as they used to be and the Glee two-season renewal confuses me, because although it hasn’t done terribly, its still not worked well at Thursday’s.

Its in this light that Fox has decided to order nine new shows (five new comedies, four new dramas), with a definite movement towards male-orientated shows. Fox needs a hit, and it’ll be desperately hoping one of these is the magic bullet.

So, let’s have a look at the new shows:

Almost Human

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What is it: Its a J.J. Abrams/J.H. Wyman (so many initials!) sci-fi drama set 35 years in the future, where humans coexist with androids. A human cop (played by Karl Urban) is paired off with an android cop (played by Michael Ealy, who’ll hopefully be less wasted here than he was on The Good Wife). Urban’s character dislikes androids, but connects with his new android partner and they investigate crimes together.

Will it be good: Its certainly an intriguing concept, and both Abrams (duh) and Wyman have had great success with getting sci-fi on network TV. On the other hand, I have a feeling this might end up a lot like Abrams’ other cop show – Person of Interest, which could have been really great, but has largely settled for being a reasonably interesting procedural. Speculating about the quality of this show is pretty difficult, because a lot will depend on the tone.

Will it be successful: A lot depends on where Fox puts it and I have a feeling that it’ll go on Friday, because its sci-fi, it might work well as a successor to Fringe and because Monday (which is the only other day an hourlong drama will fit) looks like its getting set-up for Rake or Gang Related instead. This means that it’ll be quite tough for Almost Human, which has to actually be appealing for both the sci-fi fans who kept Fringe alive and enough of a general audience, because Fox has ordered a lot of shows this season and it needs to do good numbers to survive.

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My TV Rankings, 18/2013

My rankings for the twenty new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, April 27th to Saturday, May 4th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Mad Men “The Flood” A

Not everyone enjoyed this episode of Mad Men, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw here: this was simply a terrific episode of television, doing what only Mad Men can do in a way which makes me very privileged to be able to watch it. The already-unstable world the characters inhabit getting further shaken by Martin Luther King’s assassination led to some terrific character moments – Don’s monologue about having to learn how to love his kids (which stemmed from that excellent Don/Bobby scene in the cinema), Pete scolding Harry for his racism, Joan’s horrifically awkward attempt to hug Dawn and Henry’s run for State Senate leading Betty to contemplate what she used to be. I honestly can’t name one show which has used history to advance character better than Mad Men and when you can blend in such top-notch performances as those of Jon Hamm (who should finally win an Emmy this year) and Elisabeth Moss (Peggy’s property hunt was another part of the episode with brilliant character moments), and some light-hearted scenes like the one with Roger’s high friend and Ginsberg’s first date, there’s really not much to complain about.

2. The Americans “The Colonel” A

In a television season which has been exceptional on the drama front (as opposed to the very disappointing comedy front), The Americans stands out as the best addition to this season. Philip and Elizabeth walking into a situation which they (and Claudia, who had the most epic moment of the episode when she tazers the CIA guy) can sense is a trap led to an incredibly tense finale, and the way everything connected, from Stan telling Nina she’ll be exfiltrated soon to Philip racing to rescue Elizabeth (via my favorite scene where Arkady paints abort signals on cars), it was so immensely intense and thrilling. Before the episode, I was skeptical about the possibility that Philip and Elizabeth would get away without being caught, but the way it happened here was both plausible and very well done. The Americans season one and Homeland season one both successfully walked a tightrope, while Homeland season two fell off. The key test for The Americans is whether it avoid the mistakes Homeland made next season. If it successfully passes this test, the way is clear for it to succeed the soon-to-retire Mad Men and Breaking Bad as the best show on television.

3. New Girl “Virgins” A

Well, they finally did it. All the build-up New Girl has done over the last few episodes, some of which worked, some of which didn’t, it all paid off here in this incredible episode, which not only hooked up Jess and Nick, but proved once and for all that New Girl is one of the best sitcoms on television. Some of these other sitcoms shy away from flashbacks, seeing how it was run into the ground by shows like Friends, but New Girl proved here that its still possible to do a great episode of television that’s 70% flashback. The way the show used these flashbacks to advance the characters (and, of course, give them more background) was really well done and highly impressive - Jess/Nick just felt right after that. Going beyond the character stuff, New Girl was very, very funny in this episode, with Schmidt being the MVP of the episode after his overzealous use of lube. Winston and Nick’s experience with the prostitutes was also quite fun (“I laid a lot of people off today”) and CeCe’s Mick Jagger moment was epic (and creepy). The final moments of the episode were pretty much perfectly done and really underlined the excellence of these twenty minutes.

For my take on The Good Wife, Happy Endings, Inside Amy Schumer and more, read below:

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My TV Rankings, 17/2013

My rankings for the fifteen new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, April 21st to Saturday, April 27th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Rectify “Always There” A

About half a decade ago, Mad Men and Breaking Bad established AMC as a home of great-quality television. Are Top of the Lake and Rectfiy doing the same for its sister network - the Sundance Channel? Based on Rectify’s first episode, I’d say quite possibly yes. This was the best first episode of any show I’ve watched this season, with only The Americans coming close (and that had the advantage of being feature-length). The story of Daniel Holden, a rural Georgian released from death row on a technicality after over a decade away from society is one which is really intriguing and the way Rectify goes about telling it is exceptional: the pace is perfect, the cinematography is beautiful and the acting is phenomenal – Aden Young in particular is an absolute revelation as Daniel attempts to reconnect with the world in a manner which Young plays in a remarkably honest manner – there are no cheap laughs or easy stereotyping here. On top of that, the facts of the case and the environment Daniel returns to are both well sketched-out and mysterious at the same time, which brings this episode to new heights of flawlessness.

2. Mad Men “To Have and to Hold” A-

I loved this episode of Mad Men, and I’m very happy about that: I’ve been worried that the show might take a while to find itself this season (like in season five), but those worries have been banished with this brilliant episode, which really brought out the best in Mad Men. Joan’s problems here were particularly compelling, as we got to see Christina Hendricks get her first substantial episode this season, and the sense of dissatisfaction with her lot was something which Hendricks personified really well. The feeling that SCDP is doing pretty poorly, morale-wise, despite being in decent financial health is something which the episode brought across in a particularly great manner, with Dawn’s statement about everyone crying and drinking being a very stark and very effective image, something which was backed up by Harry’s toxic resentment at Joan for getting the partnership he feels he so deserves and Ken’s increasing frustration with his father-in-law’s difficult account and being shut out by Pete in the Heinz debacle. Don’s maltreatment of Megan was something which I found particularly powerful in this episode – she’s not doing anything wrong, but he’s a massive hypocrite and wants to make others share in his misery. This was an episode which just clicked throughout and I wouldn’t mind seeing more from the office in future.

3. Rectify “Sexual Peeling” A-

The second episode of Rectify was another powerful forty minutes of television, and although it wasn’t quite as good as the first episode, I still enjoyed it heavily. Daniel’s continued exploration of the world he’s re-entering had more really beautiful moments, like him just sitting down on the baseball diamond, a scene which had brilliantly lush cinematography, but then the episode pairs him off with his step-brother and I thought the scene where Daniel recounts his rape in prison is something which doesn’t quite work (although I think it might be intentionally jarring) as well as the rest of the episode, and largely accounts for the grade drop. But then you have the scene where he’s talking to his step-sister-in-law about the seasons and it goes back to being another peaceful, beautiful scene, with two people simply talking and getting to know each other (it has to be said that Adelaide Clemens was fantastic here). There were a multitude of elements in this episode (including Daniels’ sister’s thing with the lawyer and the Senator’s affair with the waitress), but they all seemed to work and the episode ended very well with an impressive montage. This is great stuff here.

For my take on The Americans, Happy Endings and more, read below:

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My TV Rankings, 16/2013

My rankings for the fourteen new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, April 14th to Saturday, April 20th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Top of the Lake “Episode Six” A

Stunning, tense, horrifying and beautiful – and I’m only describing one particular scene in this episode of Top of the Lake. As the miniseries moved towards its conclusion, the search for Tui reached a tense fever pitch with the confrontation between her and the hunters at the cabin, which was then followed by the aforementioned stunning scene, where Jamie, dressed to make the hunters (and us) think he was Tui falls off the cliff. The direction was so perfect and my heart was in my mouth – such a f**king horrifying scene, beautifully done. The rest of the episode was also great, most notably the scene where Al, unbeknownst to Robin, brings Matt on the boat. The tension here was palpable, and Elisabeth Moss really plays Robin’s prickly semi-panic perfectly. This episode also did great work setting up the finale, especially with regards to what was found on Bob Platt’s computer and I honestly can’t find a single flaw with what I saw here, which underlined the tremendous beauty of Top of the Lake.

2. Suburgatory “Apocalypse Meow” A-

Up until a few episodes ago, a Dalia-Tessa fight would have seemed like an unlikely way for Suburgatory to bring its season to a close, but after the events of the last few episodes it didn’t surprise me, and the way it went down was really, really awesome to watch – best comedy fight I’ve seen on TV for a very long time. Jane Levy and Carly Chaikin were superb with the increasingly ridiculous beating (both verbal and physical), they were giving each other, and the scene ended brilliantly with Tessa giving Dalia the opportunity to apologize before tearing her eyelash extensions out. Even when you leave out the fight, this was a great episode, from Lisa’s ‘meow mix’ (Allie Grant has been so incredibly great this season) to Noah using his dentistry skills to disfigure the unethical Dr. Bob. George blindsiding Tessa was something which didn’t work that well (mainly because its never worked well in the past – so why would he think it would work here?), but it gave us more of Sheila trying to school George and it set up the finale very well, so on balance there’s less to complain about in this great episode.

3. Top of the Lake “Episode Seven” A-

Although I think the penultimate episode of Top of the Lake was slightly better than this closing episode, I still believe it did a very nice job of concluding this exceptionally beautiful miniseries. Closure is the one thing a series finale should always give us (unless you’re The Sopranos) and Top of the Lake did very well here in giving us just that (with one exception). Tui giving birth to the kid was a nice moment and her killing Matt was a very well-done moment, with Jacqueline Joe really shining in that particular scene. I thought the episode became a little unmoored after that, with GJ leaving Paradise being the only exception to Top of the Lake’s aforementioned excellent closure (that whole aspect of the show had some great moments, but it ultimately felt a little unnecessary), however Robin stumbling across what Al was really up to with the barista kids resulted in a brilliant final scene at Al’s house, with some particularly great work by Elisabeth Moss (who was perfect throughout both this episode – especially after Matt revealed she was his daughter, and the miniseries in general). If the miniseries (as a format) is really on the way back, I hope there’ll be more like Top of the Lake – because this was truly fantastic to watch.

For my take on Community, Mad Men, Parks and Rec and more, read below:

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My TV Rankings, 15/2013

My rankings for the eighteen new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, April 7th to Saturday, April 13h:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. The Americans “Only You” A

The best new show of the 2012-2013 television season is The Americans. No contest (unless I get more comfortable with Hannibal). This episode was absolutely perfect, I can’t point out a single flaw it has and I think it was a excellent example of writing, acting and directing truly coming together and matching each other in greatness to deliver a phenomenal hour of television. Stan slowly closing in on Gregory’s crew and the KGB having to wrap up his operation resulted in some excellent tension and great character work all round. Gregory’s increasingly desperate attempt to get out of his predicament (and not go to Moscow) was beautifully portrayed by Derek Luke. What really sent chills down my spine was his final statement before going out and committing suicide-by-cop, “I never wanted too much, really. I just wanted to live for something … And to know when I’m done. Now I’m done.” So f**king great. Whether it was the separation stuff, Stan turning up drunk at Philip’s motel room, Claudia calmly explaining to Gregory that they framed him, Nina guilting Stan by revealing Vlad’s innocence or Gregory’s fateful shootout, this was all incredibly perfect by The Americans.

2. Mad Men “The Doorway” A-

It’s back! Is it better than ever? We’ll see. The two-hour première of Mad Men’s sixth season was a great episode of television, but when you put it up against the first episode of last season, it falls a little short. Maybe if it were cut down by twenty minutes or so, it would have worked a little better, because in my opinion it just started to drag just a little around the forty minute mark. Content-wise, there was some really excellent stuff here – the visuals were tremendous, the scenes in Hawaii were very well-done and Peggy and Roger had excellent storylines here: Peggy’s seemingly flawless transition to becoming the Don of CGC was awesome to watch and Roger’s various problems in this episode gave John Slattery an opportunity to remind us of how great he is. Also, best funeral scene ever - “My son is my sunshine” *Puke*. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and look at the geopolitical situation the characters found themselves in (Vietnam will be *really* interesting this season). While there were things which slightly disappointed me (give Betty something good! (no, Fat Betty doesn’t count even though its funny)), this was a great episode of Mad Men.

3. Archer “Sea Tunt: Part II” A-/B+

Well, this season of Archer ended the way a season of Archer should always end, with Archer still alive and Ray getting paralyzed once again (I love that’s become a recurring thing). While I didn’t think this season was as good as the last year’s, I really don’t think the show put a foot wrong this time either, with plenty of great episodes, this being one of them. The gang’s trip below the see to battle Captain Murphy was very fun, not least because of the reveal that he was actually being delusional and that there was actually zero threat emanating from him. I also loved the continuation of one of the main hidden development’s this season – that it’s becoming public knowledge that ISIS is incompetent. The action was awesome, the humor was spot-on, the flashback to a coked-up Krieger was perfect and the reveal that Lana was pregnant was nicely-done (especially given how she exhibited so many of the symptoms in last season’s finale). While I do wish this episode had more of Malory, Pam and Cheryl, I’m pretty satisfied with the way this went down, and I’m already looking forward to season four.

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My TV Rankings, 14/2013

My rankings for the twenty-three new episodes of television I watched from Sunday, March 31st to Saturday, April 6th:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1. Top of the Lake “Episode Four” A

You know that an episode of television is going to be special when there’s a fantastic scene or moment, which would normally be placed towards the end of an episode, which in this case comes in right at the start of the episode. Robin emotionally recounting her rape to the relatively tone-deaf Al was an astounding scene and kicked off a phenomenal episode for Elisabeth Moss, who should really get an Emmy nomination (at the very least) for her work here. As the episode went on and Robin went through more anguish (stabbing Sarge, getting fired and having Jonny basically tell her he might be involved in the rape), Moss’ performance kept impressing and Top of the Lake kept impressing too, with the mystery being pulled in a new direction after the pathologist reveals Al to be possibly corrupt in regards to mutliple suspicious deaths. The stuff with Mitchum wasn’t as good as Robin’s part of the episode, but the moment when he loses it and torments the Paradise women was very effective (in a dramatic sense). Pretty much a perfect episode.

2. Justified “Ghosts” A/A-

A great season of Justified. Not as good as the last two, but the show remains one of the best on television and the finale gave more reasons why it’s so great. I liked that the episode only revolved around two things: would Raylan be able to protect his family from Nicky Augustine and would Boyd and Ava be successful in relocating Delroy’s body. Raylan was successful on the first count, with the terrific scene where he and Winona take out the three hostage-takers eliminating the immediate threat and his tipping off of Sammy about Nicky’s whereabouts eliminating any threat that may emanate from the now deceased Nicky (whose fantastic final scene where he basically dismisses Raylan really underlined why I’ll miss Mike O’Malley). Boyd and Ava were less successful, with an ingenious body-swap plan working until Ava weirdly insists on dumping the body herself (which is the main reason why I downgraded this episode – the show really mishandled that pivotal moment). Now Ava’s heading to jail and Boyd is out for revenge (and given how awesome Walton Goggins was here, I’m looking forward to that). Although some stuff in this season didn’t fully work, there was plenty to enjoy and this finale perfectly encapsulated the show’s effective, efficient and character-filled style.

3. Scandal “Molly, You In Danger Girl” A-

One of the things I love about this season of Scandal is how it has simultaneously made its characters more terrible and more sympathetic, and this episode was a perfect example of how well this works. Fitz’ speech to Mellie about how the two of them were pushed together out of ‘Big Jerry’s’ snobbery after their loving interview on national TV was a perfect example of how they consistently deceive the public and have mainly brought their problems on themselves, by their weakness (Fitz) or ambition (Mellie), but yet we can feel sympathetic for the immense sadness they have to live with, and I think Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young’s performances are crucial to this sympathy. The ongoing storyline with Olivia and Jake was another aspect of this episode which I loved, with the final reveal (for Olivia – we already know, of course) that Fitz and Jake were working together being brilliantly done. The ongoing search for the mole was another successful plot, with Quinn’s search for Huck in the storage locker showing that she’s not the weak link of OPA (and also showing how great Katie Lowes has gotten). A great episode all round (and that’s without talking about another great Cyrus monologue).

For my take on this week’s Good Wife, New Girl, Archer and more, read below:

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